Irritated by teacher and her communication...sort me out please

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I would like to hear what teachers think on this if possible but all input is gratefully recieved!

DD is 6 in year 2 at a private prep. Last week she brought home 2 seperate worksheets on dfferent days for homework...both were on Estimation....estimating numbers of sweets in jars....she could not grasp it at all and I did wonder why send sheets home when she has obviously NO grasp of the concept. There are only ten in the class...so it's not unreasonable to think that the teacher might have noticed DD had no grasp of the concept and either send different work home or write in her home-school book that I need to help her to understand the work.

I'm not a teacher...but I did try to help DD understand it...to no avail and so I wrote in her book that DD was plucking figures from thin air in aN effort to write anything...but that she did not understand the work. There were no follow up comments on this matter.

Today she came home and there was a note in her book saying DD did not understand the concept of odd and even numbers and could I please work with her on them...the teacher suggested a few ways we might try to work on them.

So...I laid out a load of pasta shapes...in odd and even groups...called DD in and started to show her....and she interrupted me and displayed a perfect undestanding of odds and evens...I quizzed her with random numbers...double and single figures...and she had it down perfectly.

So my question is...why did the teacher not respond to my indicating DD had no grasp of estimation...but responded days later over a different concept which DD understands well?

I know I sound fussy...but the teacher is fussy...her noted in the book are sometimes written kind of rudely...and it gets my back up that she did not respond to my comments at all on estimation...is it possible she took is as a criticism?

And why did she go to the trouble of writng a load of stuff about how DD does not understand odds and evens when she quite patently does!

I'd be making an appointment to discuss this with your child's teacher.
Seems like she's got your DD muddled up with another child.

maybe dd failed to display her understanding to the teacher?

maybe she finds her intimidating/scary

you need to go and see the teacher and ask her. i would go along the lines of you want to know how dd comes over in class- does she raise her hand? does she ask if stuck? and clarify the other issues as well

many teachers are not gifted at communicating with parents- you need to accept that and make the first move

tbf, can see little excuse if she only has to keep track of 10 kids though

This is such a miniscule thing, I'd just forget about it - really. Chances are your DD muffed a question or two about odds and evens in class that day so teacher asked you to review it - probably for fear of getting another note from you saying DD doesn't understand it. Incidentally no one undestands estimation, it's just a lame subject that's part of the curriculum but doesn't matter at all - there are lots like that.

The idea of making an appointment to discuss this - please! Save up making a fuss for when much bigger problems arise later down the road.

What do you meen Gooftroop, surely everyone uses estimating in real life, unlike many of the mathematical concepts that seem so important at school. (congruent triangles, tangents ?? etc)

I'm a secondary teacher and just wanted to add that teachers are often very busy and doing ten things at once - the comments in the planner you get from her are probably written during class whilst the teacher is trying to maintina students on task/answer their questions etc etc. I'm sure she doesn't mean it in a ride way, it's just she writes very to the point as it's all she can manage at that time in class.

As for your DC not understanding/understanding different topics - it could be that teacher saw your comment and then went over estimation with your DC in class later so she did understand it, it's just she didn't manage to write this in the planner (annoying for you, but hopefully you understand she might not have time to write in every students planner answers to every parent comment always). Also, the odd/even number thing could be you DC really didn't understand in class to begin, so teacher wrote a note, and then maybe when work was recovered/gone through at a later point in the day/week she did get it. It might also be, as someone here has said, she might be intimidated or uncomfortable with this teacher.

If you're realy worried then is there a way to informally contact the teacher for a quick progress report on your DC? You say they are at a private prep. I work in the private system and it's not uncommon to get an email from parents asking how they are progressing in my subject/anything they can do at home to help improve etc.

Hope this helps.

and when I say 'ride' I mean 'rude' of course!

Some children exhibit quite different behaviour in class to at home. I have a boy in my P2 class who manages well with reading, word recognition and other language tasks in class, but whose mother reports that he makes a terrible fuss at home and constantly complains to her that he can't do it and that he doesn't understand.
Best to make an appointment to see the teacher, look at DC's exercise books/worksheets, etc.

surely everyone uses estimating in real life, unlike many of the mathematical concepts that seem so important at school. (congruent triangles, tangents ?? etc)

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I'd second that - estimation skills are crucial, they are used all the way through to gcse, and much more throughout life. But they aren't learned in a single lesson.
If you are really concerned, ask for more material you can practice at home, and also ask when the topic will next come up (maybe next year?) It it were me, I'd let it rest.